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ED Muscle pain & Eating - restricted calorie intake

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Sideways

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So, it’s been a while now (maybe 6 months plus) that I’ve been living on meal replacement shakes and apples. So, about 700-800 calories a day.

Recently, I’ve been having chronic, generalised pain (not neuropathic) in my larger muscle groups. My arse and thighs in particular.

I’ve had issues with becoming malnourished from lousy diet before, and I know I’m supposed to still eat a couple of cups of veges a day with these shakes. But the only food I can seem to actually put in my mouth is apples, and even then, I don’t always manage a small apple each day.

For people who have spent periods on not much food, are these 2 things related? I don’t have an eating disorder, I just don’t particularly like eating or get hungry, and I hate grocery stores. So not eating food works for me lifestyle wise.

Or am I just getting old??
 
So, it’s been a while now (maybe 6 months plus) that I’ve been living on meal replacement shakes and apples. So, about 700-800 calories a day.

Recently, I’ve been having chronic, generalised pain (not neuropathic) in my larger muscle groups. My arse and thighs in particular.

I’ve had issues with becoming malnourished from lousy diet before, and I know I’m supposed to still eat a couple of cups of veges a day with these shakes. But the only food I can seem to actually put in my mouth is apples, and even then, I don’t always manage a small apple each day.

For people who have spent periods on not much food, are these 2 things related? I don’t have an eating disorder, I just don’t particularly like eating or get hungry, and I hate grocery stores. So not eating food works for me lifestyle wise.

Or am I just getting old??
I don't know. But that's nowhere enough calories. Is that all you're getting??
 
Is there a reason your calories are reduced so much?

I can imagine you aren’t getting nearly enough iron, potassium, and probably several other vitamins that are necessary for muscle health.

Are you taking a multivitamin?

I get generalized pain if I’m not moving around enough for long periods (hate jobs you have to sit constantly for). But with so little calories I don’t see how you would have enough energy to stay active.
 
Yeah, that’s it. And 800 is assuming an apple. Because I drink instant coffee in the mornings and that’s it.

I kind of know about needing more calories. Hard to take that seriously because I pretty much need my seroquel to survive, and it’s always made me put on weight. And so now I’m not putting on weight, even though I’m using up to 500mg (yeah, half a gram, I know) a day.

I take an iron supplement (took a while to get the right one, I take an Iron + C) because that’s always been low. But the meal replacement shakes are supposed to be reasonably nutritious.

I got massively malnourished once before from living off breakfast cereal (for the same reasons) for a really long time. But that caused neuropathy in my feet & lower legs, not just this chronic generalised muscle ache.

I figure it’s potentially significant, but I tend to not notice issues going on with my body until they’re pretty dire. Like, the neuropathy thing I figured out when I could no longer physically walk to my letterbox. So the fact that I’m noticing suggests it’s not just a whimsical, “It’ll pass” kinda thing.
 
But with so little calories I don’t see how you would have enough energy to stay active.
I’m walking rather than jogging, but mostly it hasn’t effected my activity levels. Moving house I seemed to have way kore physical stamina than my sister (or anyone else come to think of it). I remember noticing that because I was a little concerned.
 
@Kubash16 hell no! Hate trips to the GP, takes me days to recover.

Add to that I don’t tend to like talking about how much I eat. I’d rather have a pap smear than talk about my eating, you know? It always feels like I’m going to ve judged or labeled with something and locked up.

Which is slightly paranoid, but given my personal experience with being locked up for mental health issues, perhaps not so paranoid...
 
In the meantime, see if you can get a little more in. I know you don’t like it, I know even talking about food sucks. Trust me, I know. Can you add anything to an apple when you are able to get it down? A little cheese, or crackers, or something to dip it in like some caramel?
 
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